Touch panel, touch display panel, and touch sensing method

ABSTRACT

A touch panel including first electrode bands, second electrode bands, and a transparent dielectric material is provided. The first electrode bands are disposed on a first substrate and extended in a first direction, wherein each of the first electrodes has a plurality of first silts in the form of enclosed configuration. The second electrode bands are disposed on a second substrate, facing to the first electrode bands, and extended in a second direction interlacing the first direction. Each second electrode band is partially exposed by the first silts. The transparent dielectric material is disposed between the first electrode bands and the second electrode bands to provide a changeable gap.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation application of and claims the priority benefit ofa prior application Ser. No. 13/025,166, filed on Feb. 11, 2011, nowallowed. The prior application Ser. No. 13/025,166 claims the prioritybenefit of Taiwan application serial no. 99104800, filed on Feb. 12,2010. The entirety of each of the above-mentioned patent applications ishereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of thisspecification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention is related to a touch panel, and particularly, to a touchpanel capable of performing various touch sensing functions.

2. Description of Related Art

At present, the touch panels can be generally classified into resistive,capacitive, optical, acoustic, and electromagnetic touch panels, whereinthe resistive touch panels and the capacitive touch panels are mostcommon.

In a resistive touch panel, the touch sensing principle is based on thattwo independent conductive layers contact with each other by a pressureof a single pressing point so that the two independent conductive layersare electrically connected. A sensing signal is generated at thepressing point of the resistive touch panel and a coordinate of thepressing point on the touch panel is determined according to the sensingsignal. In a capacitive touch panel, the sensing principle is based onthat an electric field is formed in a touch sensing electrode so that aslight change of a capacitance is generated in the touch sensingelectrode when a conductive element such as a finger of a user contactsthe touch sensing electrode, and a coordinate of the contacting point onthe touch panel is determined according to the change of thecapacitance.

The capacitive touch panel is commonly advantageous in facilitating ahand writing function and a multi touch function. Nevertheless, arestriction of the capacitive touch panel is that the user can only usethe conductive element to operate the capacitive touch panel. Therefore,the user can not operate the capacitive touch panel when wearing a gloveor by using a non conductive material such as a common plastic touchpen. The resistive touch panel is commonly advantageous in facilitatingthe operation by various materials. However, the restriction of theresistive touch panel is that it fails to have a multi touch function.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed to a touch panel having various touch sensingfunctions through modifying the patterns of the electrode bands.

The invention provides a touch panel including first electrode bands,second electrode bands, and a transparent dielectric material. The firstelectrode bands are disposed on a first substrate, and extended in afirst direction, wherein each of the first electrode bands has aplurality of first silts in the formed of enclosed configuration. Thesecond electrode bands are disposed on a second substrate, facing to thefirst electrode bands, and extended in a second direction interlacingthe first direction. Each second electrode band is partially exposed bythe first silts. The transparent dielectric material is disposed betweenthe first electrode bands and the second electrode bands to provide achangeable gap.

In view of the above, the electrode bands extended in two differentdirections are interlacing disposed and facing to one another so as tobe served as the touch sensing electrodes in the invention. In addition,the electrode bands which are extended in one direction and adjacent tothe user at the operation side are configured with a plurality of slitsto expose the electrode bands extended in the other direction. Thereby,the touch panel and the touch display panel both have the resistivetouch sensing function and the capacitive touch sensing function.Accordingly, the user can operate the touch panel and the touch displaypanel through any material.

In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages ofthe invention more comprehensible, embodiments accompanying figures aredescribed in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a touch panel according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of a touch panel according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a touch panel according to anotherembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic top view of a touch panel according to anotherembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of a touch panel according to furtheranother embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a touch display panel according to an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a touch display panel according to another embodimentof the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a touch panel according to anembodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a touch panel 100includes a first substrate 110, a second substrate 120, a plurality offirst electrode bands 130, a plurality of second electrode bands 140,and a transparent dielectric material 150. The first electrode bands 130are disposed on the first substrate 110, while the second electrodebands 140 are disposed on the second substrate 120. The first electrodebands 130 are disposed facing to the second electrode bands 140. Thetransparent dielectric material 150 is disposed between the firstelectrode bands 130 and the second electrode bands 140 so that a gap Gis formed between the first substrate 110 and the second substrate 120.For facilitating the changeable gap G, the transparent dielectricmaterial 150 does not have a fixed shape, and can be made of a flexiblematerial, such as air, silicon gel, silicon oil, or the like.

In addition, the touch panel 100 can selectively include a plurality ofinsulating spacers 160. The insulating spacers 160 are disposed betweenthe first electrode bands 130 and the second electrode bands 140. In anembodiment, a height of the insulating spacers 160 is about 3 μm to 4 μmand the gap G is substantially larger than the height of the insulatingspacers 160 when the touch panel 100 is not pressed. FIG. 2 is aschematic top view of a touch panel according to an embodiment of theinvention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 together, each of the firstelectrode bands 130 is extended in a first direction D1 and has aplurality of enclosed slits 132. Each of the second electrode bands 140is extended in a second direction D2. When the first electrode bands 130and the second electrode bands 140 are disposed facing to each other,the slits 132 partially expose a portion of each of the second electrodebands 140 overlapped with the first electrode bands 130. In the presentembodiment, each of the slits 132 is extended in the first direction D1to simultaneously expose a plurality of the second electrode bands 140.

In the first substrate 110 of the present embodiment, the user candirectly press the first substrate 110 to electrically connect one firstelectrode band 130 to the corresponding second electrode band 140 sothat the resistive touch function is achieved. In addition, the slits132 of the first electrode bands 130 expose a portion of each of thesecond electrode bands 140 and a parasitic capacitance is formed betweenthe two electrode bands. When the user performs the touch operationthrough a finger or a conductive material, the capacitance formedbetween the first electrode bands 130 and the second electrode bands 140can be changed so that the touch panel 100 can determine the touchoperation of the user. Accordingly, the touch panel 100 also has acapacitive touch sensing function, wherein the capacitive touch sensingfunction can be a self-capacitive sensing function or amutual-capacitive touch sensing function.

In addition to the capacitive touch sensing method, the touch panel 100of the present embodiment further performs the resistive touch sensingprocess. In the touch panel 100, two ends of each of the electrode bands130 and 140 are respectively connected to a driving chip (not shown),and the resistive touch sensing process includes the steps described asfollows. First, a first voltage variation is formed in the firstelectrode bands 130 simultaneously and the second electrode bands 140are used for performing the sensing step. Subsequently, a second voltagevariation is formed in the second electrode bands 140 simultaneously andthe first electrode bands 130 are used for performing the sensing step.

In a real circumstance, one ends of the first electrode bands 130 areelectrically connected and the other ends of the first electrode bands130 are electrically connected through the circuit processing of thedriving chip (not shown). Similarly, one ends of the second electrodebands 140 are electrically connected and the other ends of the secondelectrode bands 140 are electrically connected as well as through thecircuit processing of the driving chip (not shown). Accordingly, therequired voltages are not input to the electrode bands 130 and 140 oneby one, and the driving method of the touch panel 100 can be performedby the known driving method of the four-wire resistive touch panel.

Nevertheless, the resistive touch sensing process depicted above merelyaccomplishes the single point touch function. If the multi touchfunction is required, the following steps are performed. First, avoltage variation is formed in the first electrode bands 130sequentially and the second electrode bands 140 are used for performingthe sensing step. Thereafter, the voltage variation is aimed in thesecond electrode bands 140 sequentially and the first electrode bands130 are used for performing the sensing step. In other words, tofacilitate the multi touch function by performing the resistive touchsensing process, the first electrode bands 130 of the touch panel 100have the voltage variation asynchronously. Therefore, the touch panel100 determines the position of the touch point based on the time thesecond electrode bands 140 receiving the touch signal. The secondelectrode bands 140 similarly have the voltage variation asynchronously.The touch panel 100 thus determines the position of the touch pointbased on the time the first electrode bands 130 receiving the touchsignal.

As a whole, the touch panel has the advantages of both the resistivetouch sensing function and the capacitive touch sensing function. Theuser can use various materials to operate the touch panel 100 byperforming the resistive touch sensing process so as to increase theconvenience of usage. In addition, the damage caused by multiple timesof contacting the first substrate 110 and the second substrate 120 areprevented. Therefore, the lifetime of the touch panel 100 is increased.Furthermore, the first electrode bands 130 and the second electrodebands 140 of the touch panel 100 are band-like to provide the multitouch function to further broaden the application. It is noted that thetouch panel 100 can select one of the above-mentioned capacitive touchsensing processes and one of the aforesaid resistive touch sensingprocesses to perform the touch sensing method. Therefore, the capacitivetouch sensing process adopted in the present embodiment is notrestricted in the self capacitance mode or the mutual capacitance mode,and the resistive touch sensing process is not restricted in the singlepoint mode or the multi point mode.

Referring to FIG. 2 continuously, the electrode bands 130 and 140 of thetouch panel 100 are required electrically connecting with the drivingchip (not shown) to perform the abovementioned touch sensing method.Therefore, the touch panel 100 further includes a plurality of firsttransmission lines 172, a plurality of second transmission lines 174, aplurality of transmission lines 176, a plurality of fourth transmissionlines 178, and a plurality of pads 180 connected to the transmissionlines. Each of the first transmission lines 172 and corresponding one ofthe second transmission lines 174 are respectively connected to twoopposite ends of one first electrode band 130. Similarly, each of thethird transmission lines 176 and corresponding one of the fourthtransmission lines 178 are respectively connected to two opposite endsof one second electrode band 140.

The connection between the transmission lines 172˜178 and the pads 180are not limited in the invention. For simplified the description, theportion of the pads 180 connected to the first electrode bands 130 arenamed first pads and the other portion of the pads 180 connected to thesecond electrode bands 140 are named second pads. In an embodiment, thefirst pads of the pads 180 are disposed on the first substrate 110, andthe second pads of the pads 180 are disposed on the second substrate120. Therefore, the first transmission lines 172 and the secondtransmission lines 174 are directly connected to the pads 180 disposedon the first substrate 110. Similarly, the third transmission lines 176and the fourth transmission lines 178 are directly connected to the pads180 disposed on the second substrate 120.

In another embodiment, all pads 180 including the first pads and thesecond pads are disposed on the second substrate 120. Herein, thecross-section view of the touch panel can be shown in FIG. 3 accordingto another embodiment. The touch panel 200 further includes a pluralityof conductive spacers 290 for connecting the first transmission lines172 and the second transmission lines 174 disposed on the firstsubstrate 110 to the corresponding pads 180 disposed on the secondsubstrate 120. The conductive spacers 290 are disposed between the firstsubstrate 110 and the second substrate 120.

FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are schematic top views of touch panels according tofurther another two embodiments of the invention. Referring to FIG. 4,in the touch panel 300, the first slits 332 of the first electrode bands330 are extended in the extending direction of the second electrodebands 140, i.e. the second direction D2. The slits 332 are enclosed, andthe disposition of the slits 332 makes the second electrode bands 140 bepartially exposed in the top view diagram.

Referring to FIG. 5, the first electrode bands 130 of the touch panel400 have the enclosed first slits 132 and the second electrode bands 440have the enclosed second slits 442. Namely, the electrode bands 130 and440 extending in different directions both have slits in the presentembodiment, wherein the extending direction of the first silts 132 isparallel to the extending direction of the first electrode bands 130 andthe extending direction of the second slits 442 is parallel to thesecond electrode bands 440. It is noted that the second slits 442 of thesecond electrode bands 440 are provided to reduce the coupledcapacitance between the first electrode bands 130 and the secondelectrode bands 440 so as to reduce the burden of the driving chip.However, if the capacitance loading ability of the driving chip isincreased, the second electrode bands 440 can be replaced by the secondelectrodes 140 mentioned in the aforesaid embodiments which areconfigured without the slits.

Specifically, the touch panel 300 can have the resistive touch sensingfunction and the capacitive touch sensing function by exposing thesecond electrode bands 140(440) through the design of the slits.However, the sensitivity of the capacitive touch sensing function isdetermined to the exposed area of the electrode, so that the dispositionlocation, the size, and the patterns of the slits are adjusted accordingto the requirement of the products and are not particularly restricted.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 illustrate touch display panels according to twoembodiments of the invention. Referring to FIG. 6 first, a touch displaypanel 500 includes a flat display panel 510, a first substrate 520, aplurality of first electrode bands 530, a plurality of second electrodebands 540, and a transparent dielectric material 550. The flat displaypanel 510 can be a liquid crystal display panel, a plasma display panel,an organic electro-luminescence display panel, or an electronic paperdisplay panel. The flat display panel 510 includes an upper substrate512, a bottom substrate 514, and a display medium 516 disposed betweenthe upper substrate 512 and the bottom substrate 514.

The second electrode bands 540 are directly disposed on a surface of theupper substrate 512 of the flat display panel 510 away from the displaymedium 516 so as to accomplish the combination of the touch panel andthe display panel. In the present embodiment, the first electrode bands530 can be the first electrode bands 130 or the first electrode bands330 depicted in the aforementioned embodiments, and the second electrodebands 540 can be the second electrode bands 140 or the second electrodebands 440 as shown in the foregoing embodiments. Furthermore, thetransparent dielectric material 550 includes air, silicon gel, siliconoil, or the like which is a non-rigid material. Therefore, the touchdisplay panel 500 can adopt the aforesaid touch sensing method tofacilitate the resistive touch sensing function, the capacitive touchsensing function, and the multi touch function.

In other embodiments, referring to FIG. 7, a touch display panel 600 isfoiled by connecting a flat display panel 610 and a touch panel 620through an adhesion layer 630. Herein, the touch panel 620 can beselected from the touch panel 200, the touch panel 300, or the touchpanel 400 of the aforesaid embodiments. Namely, the touch panel 620 andthe display panel 610 are combined by being directly adhered together,or by fabricating a part of the elements of the touch panel 620 on onesubstrate of the display panel 610.

In summary, the electrode bands extended in two different directions areinterlacing disposed and facing to one another so as to be served as thetouch sensing electrodes in the invention. In addition, the electrodebands of one direction are adjacent to the user at the operation sideand are configured with a plurality of enclosed slits to expose theelectrode bands of the other direction. Therefore, the touch panel andthe touch display panel of the invention have both the resistive touchsensing function and the capacitive touch sensing function. In addition,the electrode bands are disposed in array so that the multi touchfunction can be achieved by performing the resistive touch sensingprocess or the capacitive touch sensing process.

Although the invention has been described with reference to the aboveembodiments, it will be apparent to one of the ordinary skill in the artthat modifications to the described embodiment may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the scope ofthe invention will be defined by the attached claims not by the abovedetailed descriptions.

What is claimed is:
 1. A touch panel, comprising: a substrate; aplurality of first electrodes, disposed on the substrate and extended ina first direction; a dielectric material, disposed on the firstelectrodes; and a plurality of second electrodes, disposed on thedielectric material and extended in a second direction intersected withthe first direction, wherein each of the second electrodes has aplurality of first openings in the form of enclosed configurationwherein the first electrodes are partially exposed by the firstopenings.
 2. The touch panel according to claim 1, further comprising: aplurality of first transmission lines, connected with a plurality offirst ends of the first electrodes; a plurality of second transmissionlines, connected with a plurality of second ends of the first electrodeswherein the first ends are opposite to the second ends; a plurality ofthird transmission lines, connected with a plurality of third ends ofthe second electrodes; and a plurality of fourth transmission lines,connected with a plurality of fourth ends of the second electrodeswherein the third ends are opposite to the fourth ends.
 3. The touchpanel according to claim 2, further comprising a plurality of first padsand a plurality of second pads, wherein the first pads are electricallyconnected to the first transmission lines and the second transmissionlines and the second pads are electrically connected to the thirdtransmission lines and the fourth transmission lines.
 4. The touch panelaccording to claim 3, wherein the first pads and the second pads aredisposed on the substrate.
 5. The touch panel according to claim 3,wherein the first pads and the second pads are disposed on the substratewith different level.
 6. The touch panel according to claim 1, whereinthe first electrodes comprise a plurality of second openings in the formof enclosed configuration.
 7. The touch panel according to claim 1,wherein the first electrodes are solid electrodes.
 8. The touch panelaccording to claim 1, wherein the substrate is an upper substrate of adisplay.
 9. A touch display panel, comprising: a display panel,comprising: an upper substrate; a bottom substrate, disposedcorresponding to the upper substrate; and a display medium, disposedbetween the upper substrate and the bottom substrate; and a touch panel,comprising: a substrate, disposed on the upper substrate of the displaypanel; a plurality of first electrodes, disposed on the substrate andextended in a first direction; a dielectric material, disposed on thefirst electrodes; and a plurality of second electrodes, disposed on thedielectric material and extended in a second direction intersected withthe first direction, wherein each of the second electrodes has aplurality of first openings in the form of enclosed configurationwherein the first electrodes are partially exposed by the firstopenings.